


The Last Three Women in Rodney McKay's Life

by Nightdog_Barks



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Angst, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Gen, Mathematics, Science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-23
Updated: 2008-03-23
Packaged: 2017-10-18 05:15:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/185423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightdog_Barks/pseuds/Nightdog_Barks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Actually, it's the same as the title.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Three Women in Rodney McKay's Life

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a tag to the episode. Original dated 3/7/08, 346 words.

_**_SG:A_ Nanofic: The Last Three Women in Rodney McKay's Life**_  
 **STATUS:** Unpublished.  
 **TITLE:** The Last Three Women in Rodney McKay's Life  
 **AUTHOR:** [](http://nightdog-writes.livejournal.com/profile)[**nightdog_writes**](http://nightdog-writes.livejournal.com/)  
 **CHARACTERS:** McKay, Carter, Keller, Jeannie McKay  
 **RATING:** PG-13.  
 **WARNINGS:** None.  
 **SPOILERS:** Yes, for episode 4.20, "The Last Man."  
 **SUMMARY:** Actually, it's the same as the title.  
 **DISCLAIMER:** Don't own 'em. Never will.  
 **AUTHOR NOTES:** Written as a tag to the episode. Original dated 3/7/08, 346 words.  
 **BETA:** Just a drive-by by my intrepid First Readers, with especial thanks to [](http://deelaundry.livejournal.com/profile)[**deelaundry**](http://deelaundry.livejournal.com/) for catching a particularly glaring goof.

 **The Last Three Women in Rodney McKay's Life**

 **  
_Sam_   
**

  
She knows it when she steps forward and hugs him, tenderly, awkwardly.

"For everything," Sam says, and she wonders if he'll get it, if he'll ever understand. How lucky they all are that he was able to keep working, to be able to revitalize the _Phoenix_ after Colonel Sheppard's disappearance.

He stands stiff against her, and she knows.

There's a hole in Rodney the size of a solar flare.

  
 **  
_Jennifer_   
**

"I can fix it!" he explains, and all she can do is stare at this husband of hers, this bright manic package of hope.

"Rodney," she says gently. "Are you sure? We're talking about disrupting the _timeline of reality_."

"Yes?" he says. "Yes?"

And she knows he loves her, in his own E equals MC squared kind of way, he really does. But she also knows there's someone else, there always has been. Someone who taught Rodney a lesson he never forgot.

No one left behind.

  
 **  
_Jeannie_   
**

"You're crazy," Jeannie snarls at last, throwing down the Sharpie. "You've spent the last twenty years working on this -- you've missed Madison's graduation, her wedding, the birth of your great-nephew -- "

"This is more important," Rodney snaps.

"At what cost?" Jeannie asks, and turns away before her brother can respond. She already knows the answer. The cost is worth it, if he can get back to a time before everything changed. The fact that he's planning out a schedule that will last an eternity beyond any of their natural lives should frighten her, but it doesn't. Rodney is dogged, and tenacious, and there's only one thing that could be driving him like this, and if he can't say it she will.

But only to herself, whispered late at night as she points out the constellations to her grandson.

Rodney will wait, as the heavens turn slowly in their infinite wheel, the grace of pure math working their arc across the sky.

There's a 48,000-year journey ahead of him.

And Rodney's got all the time in the world.

~ the end.


End file.
